History of WCLAC

The Weston Creek Little Athletics Centre was established at a meeting held at the Royals Rugby Club on 28 July 1976. Some 40 determined souls braved the cold of a Canberra winter’s night because. it was their hope to see a little athletics centre established in their local area.

At that time there were only three little athletics centres in the ACT (Corroboree, Belconnen and Southside) and one in Queanbeyan. The Southside centre was based at Woden Park. The meeting on 28 July 1976 was convened because it had been agreed by the three ACT centres that two new centres should be established: one in Weston Creek and one in Belconnen (Ginninderra).

Because the ACT was too small at the time to go it alone, these centres competed at the interclub level in the Monaro Zone of the NSW Little Athletics Association. The ACT Little Athletics Association provided a $100 donation to help establish the two new centres, The NSW Association also provided all the necessary paperwork and $73 worth of equipment to get the new centres started (although there was a requirement to pay for the equipment after 12 months). The Centre later received a grant of $300 from TABfunds for the purchase of items of more substantial equipment, such as high jump bags.

The first committee, under inaugural President Mr Ken Daniels, initially selected red and white as the club colours, then changed this to white shirts with a green sash containing the words “Weston Creek” in white lettering. The colours were changed again for the 1977/78 season to a more distinctive red and black striped singlet with black shorts, designed by then President Mr Gary Hand. This was when the nickname The Redbacks was adopted, The use of the nickname lapsed for many years before being relaunched with a new insignia by the then Minister for Sport and Recreation, Mr Bill Stefaniak MLA, at the Centre’s 20th anniversary celebrations on 26 October 1996.

The current uniform of a red T-shirt with black sleeves was adopted in 1991 in recognition of the dangers of overexposure to the sun with the former singlet style top. In 1995, the Centre agreed to the option of a bodysuit design uniform. Both styles of uniform have received official sanction by the ACTLAA.

The Centre’s mascot was made in 1999 by Wendy Gathercole and, after a competition to find a name, was called ‘Racey Redback’, U6 athlete Fairlie Hawke was awarded a prize for suggesting the name.The Racey Redback is still used today as our Mascot. Traditionally, the WCLAC athletes, who win a medal at the ACT Championships take Racey Redback up to the podium with them.